Two bins stuffed with undelivered mail, including 92 ballots meant for the upcoming midterm election, turned up in a dumpster at Golden Gardens Park in Seattle. King County Elections has since reissued every one of those ballots to the voters who were supposed to receive them in the first place.
The discovery came after a voter flagged the discarded mail to King County Elections customer service, according to KOMO News. Elections staff then found the two bins of mail themselves in a dumpster at the Ballard park, a discovery later detailed by FOX 13 Seattle. In total, the bins included 92 ballots, all of which have now been reissued to the affected voters.
Seattle police didn't stop at the one dumpster. Officers checked 26 trash bins across two separate parking lots looking for more discarded ballots, but came up empty, the station's report noted. King County Elections also reported the incident to the U.S. Postal Service for investigation, per Kendall Hodson, the agency's chief of staff.
Why Officials Say the Ballots Likely Weren't the Target
Hodson said mail theft occurs during election season and that discarded ballots are typically not the target of that theft. She added that law enforcement partners indicate ballots are usually not what thieves are after in the first place, suggesting the bins may have been dumped for other reasons tied to the broader mail inside them rather than the ballots specifically.
That pattern isn't unique to King County. In Utah, a postal worker was accused of tossing 300 mail-in ballots into a parking-lot dumpster shortly before that state's June 23 primary, as reported by NBC News. That worker, Damon Matai Seei, pleaded not guilty to a federal charge of destruction and delay of mail and told investigators he had no political agenda, saying he simply tossed other mail along with the ballots. USPS has said the security of political and election mail is a top priority during every election cycle.
How King County Verifies Replacement Ballots
Hodson said voter signature verification and checks on whether a ballot has already been returned ensure that only a registered voter can vote their own ballot, a safeguard that matters when replacement ballots get reissued after an incident like this one. Under Washington law, a registered voter can obtain a replacement ballot if the original was lost, destroyed, spoiled, or never received, through a telephone request, by mail, electronically, or in person, according to the Washington State Legislature's statute on the matter.
King County voters who have not yet received their ballot can call King County Elections at 206-296-8683, per the county agency. Affected voters also have other options available to them for obtaining a replacement, Hodson said.
Anyone who comes across ballots in improper locations, such as a dumpster or trash bin, is asked to contact [email protected] or 206-296-VOTE. The county is asking people who report found ballots to provide a photo and details of exactly where the ballots were found, if possible.
King County typically assembles ballot packets about four weeks before Election Day and mails them out three weeks before, per the county elections department, a timeline that places the Golden Gardens discovery squarely within the window when ballots for the midterm were already circulating through the mail.
